But one aspect of this policy that has garnered less attention is around its most vulnerable victims - children. Our new report, Child trafficking in the UK 2018: A snapshot, indicates that despite significant progress made towards understanding and tackling modern slavery in the UK, children are being left behind.

Whilst children represent nearly half of all victims identified (rising by a staggering 66% last year, to 2,218 victims), the report reveals that a lack of child-specific policies and resourcing has left these children without specialist support and vulnerable to further harm.

Child trafficking is a form of child abuse and a grave violation children’s rights. It is therefore a specific phenomenon, which requires a different response from adults, one that is centred on child rights and child protection. Yet this is precisely where the response has been lacking. Rather than taking a victim-centred and child focused approach, the Government’s modern slavery response has been largely focused on criminal justice and immigration.

This is particularly evident in the support provision for victims, where one would expect child victims to be the highest recipients. Yet unlike for adults, who receive specialist accommodation and recovery support from a Government contract run by the Salvation Army, there is no specialist support provision for child victims. Responsibility instead falls within general children’s services, where there is no additional funding, specialist accommodation provision and no mandatory training for social workers on child trafficking. ECPAT UK regularly trains frontline workers on these issues, yet on a regular basis, not a single social worker in a training room will realise that it is their duty to report trafficking risks of children in their care. How can children get the support they need to recover from such experiences if those responsible for their care do not understand their needs?

Because child protection responsibility is devolved to Local Authorities, where awareness of these issues is low and recording practices are inconsistent, these children become pretty much invisible from national data. This leaves us with little way of knowing whether they are safe and protected from further harm.

Sadly, much of what we do know of what happens to them is far from positive. Our report, Heading back to Harm, highlighted that over a one year period until September 2015, nearly a third of all trafficked and unaccompanied asylum seeking children went missing from care at least once, and over 200 of these children were never found. Other children get returned to their country of origin once they turn 18, with little scrutiny, no proper risk assessment and with a high likelihood that they will be further exploited or re-trafficked.

Small steps are being taken but they are limited and slow to materialise. The one key provision for children under the 2015 Modern Slavery Act was to establish an independent guardianship scheme to act as an advocate for each of these children. Yet it is still only being trialled in a few areas, with no clarity on when full roll-out is expected. Long-awaited reforms to the National Referral Mechanism, the system for identification and support of modern slavery victims, were announced in October. But whilst for adults this includes additional support provision, the reforms do not offer any material support provision for child victims.

At the same time, immigration objectives continue to hinder meaningful progress for children. There is no policy to provide child victims of trafficking with long term stability in this country through their immigration status, and a hostile immigration environment continues to create barriers to them accessing vital services such as health and education. Despite dire conditions for separated children across Europe, there are very few safe, legal routes for children to enter the UK, which leaves them unprotected and exposed to exploitation. Coupled with this is a looming threat posed by Brexit that the UK will no longer be able to cooperate fully with European child protection mechanisms.

So whilst the UK Government’s modern slavery agenda has undoubtedly been a major step forward towards understanding and responding to this crime, has it now begun to reach its limits? Exposing these limitations of the Government’s response shows that it is time for a new approach for children. This approach should be focussed on children’s rights, centred on their best interests and should be driven by the views of young people themselves. A re-prioritisation of this kind would mean funding to children’s services for specialist provision of support, providing children with an opportunity to regularise their immigration status and opening up safe, legal routes for children to enter the UK.

Child trafficking is not an immigration issue, nor can it be dealt with effectively by prosecutions alone. It is a structural issue, exacerbated and often created by policy choices which make children vulnerable. As such it calls for a response rooted in child protection first and foremost.

Two leading UK charities, ECPAT UK and Missing People, have released a new report warning that trafficked and unaccompanied children are 30 times more likely to go missing than other children their age. Additionally, in 2017, trafficked and unaccompanied children went missing from care on average 7 times, highlighting grave safeguarding failures on the part of local authorities.

More than 30 child rights NGOs, including ECPAT UK, ECPAT International and eight ECPAT member groups have written to EU President Junckers expressing concern over the wording of the draft Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (e-Privacy Regulation), currently under consideration in Brussels. The NGOs are concerned the new regulation could hamper efforts to track online child sex offenders and identify victims.

ECPAT UK is once again partnering with the Refugee Council to deliver training to over 1,000 foster carers and support workers in accommodation placements in England. The 'caring for separated and trafficked children' training programme will equip those with caring duties for unaccompanied and trafficked children with the knowledge and tools to effectively protect these vulnerable children.

On Wednesday, 17th October 2018, ECPAT UK will join partners from across Europe to participate in a ‘Day of Action’ for unaccompanied and separated children, as part of the cross-border Safeguarding Migrant Children Across Europe (AMINA) project.

Thousands of children put at risk of trafficking by the UK Government’s lack of plan to prevent it, says new report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group - a group of organisations including ECPAT UK.

Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector has been an ‘open secret’ among humanitarian organisations, with individuals who report abuse continually ‘silenced and ostracised’, according to a new report by the International Development Committee which drew on evidence submitted by ECPAT UK.

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The Secret Gardeners aims to inform professionals about the plight of children who are forced by organised crime gangs to grow drugs in houses across the UK but who often face criminalisation and prison.

The National Referral Mechanism is a process set up by the Government to identify and support victims of trafficking in the UK. It was born out of the Government's obligation to identify victims under the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Human Trafficking, which came into force on 1 February 2008.

In 2018 we worked with Care2 to call on the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, to overhaul the current system of identification and support for victims of trafficking – the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

This year, an incredible 120,535 supporters called for specialist support for all trafficked children. However, the fight is not finished and with the Modern Slavery Act currently under review, it’s now or never to make sure your voice is heard. Will you take 5 minutes to contact your MP asking them to raise this issue with the Home Secretary?

The UK Government is failing to protect thousands of children from exploitation by lacking a plan to prevent child trafficking, according to a new report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), a coalition of twelve UK-based charities, including ECPAT UK. The report Before the Harm is Done, stresses that the UK has no specific strategy in relation to preventing trafficking in children, putting thousands of children at risk.

ECPAT UK offers a comprehensive training programme, in line with National Occupational Standards, delivering courses for more than 20 years to help improve responses to child trafficking, modern slavery and exploitation.

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Report immediate concerns about a child's welfare

If you have an immediate concern about a child's welfare, please contact your local council's social care department, who are available 24 hours a day. You can find their contact details on the Directgov website or in the phone book.

You can also contact the Modern Slavery Helpline on 0800 0121 700 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

If your concern is urgent, please call the police in your area or 999.